


We Were in an Accident. We Got Out.

by gaykiwi



Category: Timekeeper Series - Tara Sim
Genre: Gen, I haven’t read the books in a few months pls don’t bully me, M/M, Other, Tea, WHEN WILL YOU LEARN THAT YOUR ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES, in this house we support communication, low key some fluff, mild? angst, no beta we die like men, people talking about their problems? heard of it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-18
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2020-09-07 01:49:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20301448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gaykiwi/pseuds/gaykiwi
Summary: Colton was in an accident. He didn’t get out. Danny bargained away half his life to bring him back. He doesn’t regret anything. They were both physically okay and alive, but Danny struggled to say what he did to make that happen.





	We Were in an Accident. We Got Out.

**Author's Note:**

> I got bored and wanted something to show what happens after everything goes down and my boy literally trades half of his life away. Or in other words: consequences.

Danny studied his hand against the wooden table. It was… interesting... not having nerves and the ability to genuinely feel through the metal. Strange having something attached to your body but not feel it. The metal moved and acted like an arm. Sometimes he could swear he felt his own arm there, nerve endings and all. But that was the painful part. A doctor had told him about phantom limbs. It was also a constant physical reminder of when he hadn’t been in the best mental space. He avoided looking those few months in the eye.

The thing about Colton was that his friends and his dad didn’t know about him yet. There would be questions, too many. Why was Colton the only clock spirit that came back alive? Hows, whats, whens. How would Danny tell them how easy it had been to bargain half of his life away when he hadn’t thought he had anything to live for? No. No, he would tell them eventually. Maybe whenever he went back home.

Danny had his own questions, like did Aetus actually split his years in two? What if Danny had been meant to live until 80 or 60 or 40? What if, what if, what if… Too many variables for how long his life would now be. He hadn’t told Colton what he’d done yet. Danny didn’t think he would be able to handle how Colton would be angry with him, how Colton would voice his own what ifs, how Colton would want him to tell his friends and family. If the subject was brought up, he promised himself he would tell Colton.

He wondered if he would feel his missing years like a phantom limb. 

That wasn’t saying Danny regretted what he had done. Nothing could make him regret Colton. Cassie would hide her sadness behind calling him a dumbass (probably blame herself). Daphne would be furious and Akash wouldn’t meet his eyes (both thinking about their own dead loved ones). He didn’t want to know what his father would say or do (because how the hell does someone even react to that?)

Danny snapped out of his spiraling thoughts with the sound of the kettle going off. What was the use in suffering twice? He rushed it off the stove top and with a sigh, glanced at the one clock in his and Colton’s home. Early morning sunlight lit up the clock face that told him “Go wake up Colton, it’s almost 11.”

The wooden floorboards protested under his weight as he made his way to their bedroom. Danny’s chest filled up at the thought. Their bedroom. Their bedroom, where his boyfriend was sleeping. The whole sleeping thing took a minute for the both of them to get used to. So did the eating and breathing thing. And so did the being alive without your moods possibly mucking up a whole town’s day, week, unspecified amount of time because it went out of wack. 

Colton was just starting to sit up when Danny crept through the doorway, which washed away any thought Danny might have had. Colton gave a groggy stare, trying to blink away sleep. Danny made his way over to the bed and sat closer than he necessarily had to. 

“Your hair is a mess,” Danny mumbled, running his hand through the soft 

Colton pulled Danny down by his collar, murmuring into his ear, “Awfully bold statement coming from you,” And flicked Danny’s forehead.

“Tea,” Danny said, dumbly. 

“Yeah?” He prompted.

“It’s up.” 

Colton pecked him on the mouth and swung out of bed, leaving Danny there. The sun lifted slightly through the window in just the right place so that it blinded Danny. He shuffled behind a retreating Colton. 

They made their way into the light stained kitchen. It was cozy and warm, made more so with the tunic-clad boy next to the stove. Most of their home could be considered “cozy”, or in another word, “small” or “cramped.”

“We should go into London today,” Colton said offhandedly.

Nerves shot through Danny’s stomach. “Oh?”

“As much as I love this being just us, I’ve seen the letters piling up, and assuming who they’re from,” He said, pointing at a small stack hidden underneath a book.

“Can you pass me a cup?” He didn’t make eye contact. 

“Danny,” Colton said, softly. 

“I know... I know. I’m just worried about how they’ll react.” Danny stared at the clock.

“We need to tell them we’re both alive. It’s been two weeks. I know you haven’t told me much, but I know that you weren’t in the best place. You can imagine how worried they are.” Colton poured two cups of tea and sat them down

“Well that… they’ll ask why only you.” That implies an explanation. He could just say it before he could stop himself. Ohhh how would Colton feel about it? Would the guilt of how much Danny gave away eat at him? Danny leaned against the wall and folded his arms. He had had an awful long amount of time to think about it. 

Colton frowned. “Is this what’s been weighing on you?”

Breath and say it, he told himself. “Uh, yeah. So, well, Aetus,” The image of himself at the sea that day flashed in his mind, “I told him that if he could, er, bring you back, that… well, he could give you half of what would have been my years.” 

“Oh.” Colton breathed, taking a long drink of his tea.

“Are you mad?” Danny glanced up to check for damage.

The look on his face was unreadable. A pause. A breath. “I don’t know. I know that it was stupid but I’m alive and with you and I can’t be angry about that. I know that I can’t say that I wouldn’t have done the same. Gods, it’s too early for this.”

“Look, I didn’t mean for you to feel guilty about it.”

“Guilty? I’m living on stolen time and I can’t tell how to feel about it. I don’t know what kind of person that makes me.”

“It’s not stolen if I gave it up freely. Not if you didn’t ask for it. Hell, I don’t even know how Aetus did it or if he did use my time, it’s not like having a breakdown at the sea counts as a conversation. We’ll just have to live and see what comes of it. I don’t want to fight about something I wouldn’t change even if I could.”

“I… thank you for telling me. You’ve been sitting on that for two weeks.”

Danny let out an airy but thick laugh. “Yeah, I have. I don’t know how my father or Cassie or Daphne or anyone else will react and I want them to know that you’re alive and I’m okay and that I don’t regret anything but…”

“We don’t have to go today? But you should read those letters. And I need time to think, anyways. Sort myself out.” Colton put the second cup he made into Danny’s hands. “Drink your tea before it goes cold.”

Danny let himself sit in his thoughts with the heat of the mug keeping him grounded. The town had been willing to let Danny and Colton stay for almost free, considering everything the two had done for them, but he was running low on money. He was also running out of the amount of time it would be acceptable to tell someone about something this big. It was time to own up to his actions. It was time for him to go back home.

**Author's Note:**

> Thoughts? Feelings? Crying? Tell me! Validation for my art if the only thing that keeps me going :^)


End file.
